


Inquisitor To The Rescue

by Identiaetslos



Series: Nox Trevelyan Collection [15]
Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Cass ain't straight, Depression resulting in piggyback rides, F/F, Fluff, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-10
Updated: 2019-01-10
Packaged: 2019-10-07 14:11:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,184
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17367332
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Identiaetslos/pseuds/Identiaetslos
Summary: You know who needs a piggyback ride? It’s Cassandra.





	Inquisitor To The Rescue

On the way back from Caer Oswin was the only time that Cassandra Pentaghast could remember feeling too tired to walk. One foot in front of the other, she told herself, hearing the command uttered in her ear by her nursemaid. She watched her feet swishing through the tall green grass that already covered the road on the way back to Skyhold.

It hadn’t been a week since it was last cut. “Is the ground that fertile, or did one of the mages do this?” Cassandra asked absently of Natalie Trevelyan. She lifted her gaze and caught the redheaded Inquisitor trudging up the hillside just behind her. She looked in good spirits and her freckled brow regarded her with concern.

“I’m glad you noticed it, too, my dear,” Vivienne said from just behind Natalie. She came up the incline, taking up the rear with Sera as they always did on adventures. “I suggest speaking candidly to Minaeve at your earliest convenience, Inquisitor, before this gets out of hand.”

“It’s only grass, Madame Vivienne,” Nox said with amusement.

Vivienne frowned disapprovingly. “Darling, you know better. Out of charity to you, I will forget you said that.”

Natalie made a face and shrugged at Cassandra. “I will talk with Minaeve in the morning.”

“I’m sorry I said anything,” Cassandra said. She meant it to be a humorous apology, but found her voice sank with her exhaustion. Her mind drifted back to the horrors that she found at Caer Oswin. The nightmare that Lord Seeker Lucius became, Daniel.

Despite everything at the Conclave, Haven, and even going through the Fade, Cassandra had done her best to put it all behind her. Moving forward was how the Inquisition was going to win this. Thedas depended on her to not become overrun. Natalie depended on it, too.

Natalie offered a comforting smile across her strawberry face and hesitated a moment like she wanted to come over to Cassandra and kiss her.

Cassandra hesitated, too, her heart skipping in anticipation of something so welcome. Instead, Natalie glanced at the guard tower looming in the distance. Realizing they were within sight of the Inquisition lookouts, she offered a soft smile instead of the kiss and motioned for Cassandra to continue.

Even more deflated than before, Cassandra nodded and shuffled her feet forward. They didn’t seem to want to move, but they did anyway. To what? To where? Lucius had been right about one thing: Everything she believed in was turning into a bigger lie than she wanted to think about, but the strategist in her, the Seeker in her couldn’t help it. Was everything she believed in also not real?

Cassandra glanced at the back of Natalie’s head and the red stubble that crept up her neck to the tufts of red hair that fluttered on the soft breeze. The sky had darkened as clouds rolled in from Ferelden, threatening another downpour like yesterday. Between the deepening shadows and the pale light from the struggling sun, she looked more human than she ever did.

What was it Justinia said in the Fade? That even she didn’t know the truth, whether Natalie was the Herald of Andraste. Natalie had shrugged it off but the doubt in her face was something Cassandra had ignored for far too long.

For the first time, Cassandra had no idea what she was doing, and she was certain she was mad.

Almost on cue, cold rain began to patter down from the heavens and Cassandra found her feet could no longer move. She watched as Vivienne, Sera, and Natalie grew smaller as they made their way up the rest of the hill to the gates. Calling for help was useless. She didn’t want pity for something so pathetic.

 _Move._ She willed herself, hearing that same nursemaid in her ear and feeling the kick of her shoe at the edge of her foot. There was no budging. Cassandra’s thighs burned painfully instead and she looked at the ground as it saturated for comfortable spot in the grass to sit.

“Cassandra?” Natalie’s voice cut through the rumble of thunder in the distance. She stood by herself not far away.

“I’m...I just need to rest for a moment. You go on and I’ll be along.” Cassandra swatted her hand dismissively.

Of course, Natalie disobeyed her wishes and moved closer instead. “Would you like a ride back home?”

Cassandra was puzzled for a moment at her request. They had left the mounts at Skyhold, so Nox’s horse Buckley, nor her own Thermesia, were here for either of them to ride back to the fort. Then it dawned on her that Nox intended to carry her. “Remember what I said about carrying me,” she cautioned.

Nox smiled in that way she did that made it impossible for Cassandra to remain too upset at anything. Lightning arced behind her head, which told Cassandra that standing around joking in the open while both being tall women, dressed in metal was not the wisest thing.

“Not in the way you picture it. But...you always do it for me...” Nox’s voice trailed off. She turned around and knelt down. A piggyback ride.

“This is ridiculous,” Cassandra grumbled, but it was a solution and it had been ages since anyone had ever offered to give her a piggyback ride let alone actually do it. And it meant all the more that the woman she loved was the one offering it.

Cassandra wrapped her arms around Nox’s neck and tried not to smile girlishly as she was lifted into the air. Natalie was only that much taller than she was and being the wielder of a massive two-handed sword, she carried Cassandra with ease. Seeing the guard tower from her height with her legs swinging from inside Nox’s arm-stirrups was far more enjoyable than she wanted to admit. "No," she said flatly into Nox's ear the farther she made it up the hill, prompting a laugh from the woman she'd fallen in love with.

The unexpected nature of such a gesture soothed Cassandra's heart. There would be time once they made it to Skyhold, to make sense of the mess that had been Caer Oswin, and inside there would be this silly face who loved her to help her through it. Comforted, Cassandra wrapped her arms tighter around Nox.

"Ho!" Nox greeted Threnn with a wave. The newly appointed Guard-Sergeant gazed down from her perch. Cassandra overheard a sharp, “bloody hell” from the former Quartermaster.

Cassandra couldn’t help a laugh as Threnn signaled for the gates to open and gave Nox a spur.

“Charging, M’Lady.” Nox joked. She giggled as she ran under the vast archway to the main entrance and then stopped abruptly as the Inquisition Advisers approached, concern across their faces until they caught sight of the smiles.

Cassandra glanced at Leliana who was biting her lip hard enough she thought it might bleed. Immediately, she wiped the fun off her face and returned to her usual stoic posture while forgetting she was still riding on Nox’s back. 

“Inquisitor to the rescue,” Leliana joked.


End file.
